


Five Scenes: Wallace and Lisia

by orphan_account



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Ruby & Sapphire & Emerald | Pokemon Ruby Sapphire Emerald Versions
Genre: Character Study, Family, References to Alcohol, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-11
Updated: 2015-04-11
Packaged: 2018-03-22 10:39:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3725713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A lot of people see Wallace as being a silly, flamboyant man with a penchant for the dramatic. He does nothing to discourage that perception. He is, in reality, a much quieter soul, preferring peace, and time with his loved ones. </p><p>A few short scenes in the life of Wallace and Lisia, with references to Juan and Steven.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Scenes: Wallace and Lisia

~1~

Wallace doesn’t drink coffee. He doesn’t take anything caffeinated if he can help it. He doesn’t like the jittery sensation it causes – it’s almost like the choppy waters of a storm inside his mind. Instead, he keeps a supply of various herbal infusions in his cupboards – chamomile is his favourite, but he has citrus-peel and hibiscus infusions for morning, peppermint for focus, berry infusions because Lisia likes them, and redbush for social occasions (for its similarity to regular tea).

Similarly, Wallace eschews alcohol. It impairs his thinking. When Steven or Juan visit, they are understanding of this. Juan is only too aware of the effects of drink, having seen several of his students fall to it. He’s had to help more than a few people in their recovery. Steven was brought up to know each of the types of alcohol, their pairings and usage in social situations – but otherwise, he also avoids drinking as he prefers to keep his mental faculties intact.

Wallace knows it is up to him, as a leader, to be the calm that others need when difficult situations arise. It is for this reason that he feels he can’t be filled by the sensation of turbulent seas, nor can his judgement be seen to be impaired in any way.

 

~2~

When Lisia first moved to Sootopolis, she started having bad dreams. Her mother was horribly ill, and the dreams were frequently filled with images of tubes and monitors. Sometimes, she would dream that her own Uncle was delivering the awful news – that her mother had died. Lisia would awaken with tears in her eyes.

After several of these dreams, Lisia crept downstairs one night to the kitchen. To avoid waking her Uncle, she padded along on bare feet, a flashlight in hand so that she wouldn’t have to turn on the upstairs lights.

In the kitchen, Lisia filled the kettle and lit the stove, setting the kettle down to boil. She fetched her favourite teacup and prepared a strainer with a teaspoon of chamomile.

She sat down to wait for the kettle to boil.

The next thing Lisia knew, she was back in that awful scene. Her mother had tubes in her arm leading to bags of some kind of fluid, and another pair of tubes inside her nose. Her mother seemed to be finding it difficult to breath. The heart monitor softly beeped. They were closed in by curtains. A nurse was saying things she didn’t understand.

Somebody tried to lead Lisia away. She felt herself flailing, trying to escape, and then --

Lisia startled herself awake.

She was curled up on her Uncle’s lap, held in his arms, a blanket pulled over both of them. Uncle Wallace stirred – had he been asleep too? – and gave her a gentle squeeze, rubbing her arm. Lisia buried her face in his shoulder. Uncle Wallace just held her without saying a word, letting her cry herself out.

 

~3~

Wallace often woke early in the morning, and would take that time to meditate before the day began. Kneeling on the floor, his palms resting atop his legs, his back straight, he would watch the sun rising as he breathed slowly.

After Lisia’s nightmares, Wallace taught her to meditate as well.

Kneeling was uncomfortable, so Lisia found her own way of sitting. The meditation exercise seemed simple enough, and although her mind wandered, her Uncle’s voice brought her back to the present.

First came a deep breath. Slowly released. Then another breath. Slow release.

The breathing helped to release tension Lisia didn’t even know was there.

The sensations of breathing – the rise and fall of her chest, the intake of air, the slow release – were anchors, Uncle Wallace told her. When her mind started to wonder, that anchor would help her to find her way back.

The first time around, Lisia nearly fell asleep. Uncle Wallace had smiled and gently told her to get some rest.

The practice was worth it, though.

Lisia used the techniques her Uncle taught her before going to sleep at night. Little by little, the bad dreams lessened, and after a while, she was finally able to sleep through the night without waking up.

 

~4~

A lot of people see Wallace as being a silly, flamboyant man with a penchant for the dramatic. He does nothing to discourage that perception. He is, in reality, a much quieter soul, preferring peace, and time with his Pokemon, as well as Juan, Steven, and Lisia. He prefers to be underestimated if it gives him the joy of that time with his loved ones.

It does, however, mean that those who show up at the Sootopolis Gym to train – at least, the ones who don’t take their training seriously – are surprised when Wallace turns out to be quite strict. He can be quite the taskmaster when he has to be.

For all that Wallace is calm and grace and patience with those who want to learn, with those in whom he sees potential, he is not someone to be crossed.

Juan used to be much the same. He too cultivated a façade of being suave and debonair. Underneath, however, his mind was one of the best that Wallace knew – always observant, always tactical, always thinking. While Juan was gentle and patient and kind, he could also be stern and brutally honest when necessary.

Because being a Pokemon trainer is more than physical preparation, and requires the mental skills to go with that physical presence, Juan was the one who taught Wallace how to meditate.

 

 

~5~

Wallace has been known to meditate while sitting beneath the waterfall at the gym. It is a time-honoured practice, one that Wallace learned in his early days as Juan’s apprentice. Juan’s reason for including it in their training was that it supposedly helped with emotional control by finding one’s centre. At the time, Wallace wasn’t entirely sure how sitting under water running so hard that it felt as if it was striking you, could be helpful at all.

The point of the exercise was to find the discipline to withstand the discomfort, to focus in spite of it, to stay calm under literal pressure.

The pain was the hardest part to endure. After a while, the roar of the water was easy enough to tune out. Much as in regular meditation, Wallace sought an anchor in his breathing, forcing himself to keep his breathing even, steady, calm. Little by little, the tension melted away. By the time Juan had waded in to call Wallace away from the waterfall, even the pain and discomfort had eased, becoming a dull pounding that he could ignore.

Sometimes, when Wallace can’t think straight – perhaps he’s had to scold a trainer for doing something incredibly stupid; or maybe somebody has given him coffee and for the sake of propriety, he has drank what was placed in front of him -- and breathing exercises aren’t helping, he takes off his hat and shoes, and sets them aside. Carefully, he wades into the river flowing underneath the ice platforms, and kneels under the waterfall, letting the sensation of the ice-cold water press against him, pounding his head and shoulders. He closes his eyes, and takes a few deep breaths, anchoring his attention in the sensations, and allows the water to wash away the turmoil in his mind.

 


End file.
